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M. Safa Saraçoğlu, associate professor of history

M. Safa Saraçoğlu, associate professor of history

M. Safa Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., associate professor of history, associate professor of history, helped organized a four-panel discussion on Legitimizing Law in the Ottoman Empire recently at the 47th annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in New Orleans, from Oct. 10 to 13. The session reflected a select group of responses to a call for papers Saraçoğlu issued in January.

The mini-workshop covered an entire day and attracted a lot of attention. It involved 24 respected scholars from a variety of countries including Hungary, Israel, Turkey, United Kingdom and U.S.

In addition, Saraçoğlu presented his research, “Düstur Before “Birinci Tertib:” Liberalism, Codification and Government in Nineteenth Century Ottoman Empire” in one of these panels. The discussions following the presentations in this workshop were lively and brought up several significant issues in the rapidly evolving topic of Islamic law and historical change.

Scholarship 2011

June — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., was an invited speaker at the 16th Annual International Workshop of the Department of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Israel Science Foundation on June 4 to 6 in Beer-Sheva, Israel. He presented, “Historicizing Düstur: A Preliminary Look at the Early Compendia of Laws in the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Empire” at the workshop, “Socio-Legal Perspectives on the Passage to Modernity in and Beyond the Middle East.”

The productive workshop focused on the impact of 19th century legal reforms in the Middle East and North Africa. Some of the presentations were relevant to the current debates on relocation of Bedouin tribes in the Negev desert and generated considerable interest in Israel. The workshops were discussed in an op-ed piece in one of the most circulated English dailies in Israel, Jerusalem Post. As a participant, he had to respond to the op-ed article. It was published on June 11.

April — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., published two articles in book chapters and refereed journals, which included: “Resilient Notables: Looking at the Transformation of the Ottoman Empire from the Local Level” in Charles Lipp and Matt Romaniello (Eds.) Contested Spaces of Nobility in Early Modern Europe and “Muhacirler, Biyopolitika ve Öküz Hırsızlığı: On Dokuzuncu Yüzyılda Vidin’de Osmanlı Yönetimselliğinin İşleyişi” (“Refugees, Biopolitics and Cattle Theft: Operation of Ottoman Governmentality in Nineteenth Century Vidin”) in Toplum ve Bilim 121.

February — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., earned an academic-year residency fellowship to conduct research on legal reform in the Ottoman Empire at Institute for Advanced Study at Nantes (France) for 2012-13.

Scholarship 2010

September — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., was invited to give a lecture, "Comparing the Guests: The Impact of Refugees on Local Administrative Practices in Nineteenth Century Vidin," for Columbia Seminar in Ottoman and Turkish Studies at Columbia University, N.Y., on Sept 24.

September — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., was granted a semester leave with pay due to an American Council of Learned Societies, Early-Career Postdoctoral Fellowship in East European Studies (Fall 2009)

August — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., received a TALE grant to develop a new course at Bloomsburg University in Gender in the Middle East.

Scholarship 2009

August — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., presented a variety of papers involving his research at several conferences over the summer, including an invited talk at Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, Germany. Saraçoğlu presented, "Resilient Notables: Looking at the Transformation of the Ottoman Empire from the Local Level" and "Contested Spaces of Nobility" in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 28-30. He then presented "'Those Cattle Thieves:' Immigrants, Land-Use and Violence in a Nineteenth Century Ottoman County" as part of the World Congress of Environmental History in Copenhagen, Denmark, in Aug. 4-8. Saraçoğlu concluded his summer by presenting "Writing the Immigrants into the Local Record" at an invited talk at Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, Germany, on Aug. 11.

Scholarship 2008

August — Saraçoğlu, Ph.D., was awarded a research scholarship for the month of August in the East European Studies of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. He was also awarded the PASSHE's FTPDC grant for Summer Research in Turkey, Bulgaria and United Kingdom.

August — Saraçoğlu had two articles published in referred journals. "Sitting Together: Local Councils of Vidin County as Domains of Hybridization [1864-1877]") was published (in Bulgarian) in Sociological Problems/Sociologicheski Problemi, Vol. 39, Issue 3-4 (2007). "Some Aspects of Ottoman Governmentality at the local level: The Judicio-Administrative Sphere of the Vidin County in the 1860s and 1870s," in Ab Imperio, Vol. 8, Issue 2 (2008).

Saraçoğlu was also invited to attend a workshop organized by the East European Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Committee on Eastern European Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies. This took place in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland (August 8-11, 2008).